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Add the front stretcher Rough-shape the stretcher now. Fischer uses a different tenon cutter for the stretchers (below). Before it will work, you need to taper the ends of the stretchers. Again, draw a circle on the ends to guide you. Shape the tenon with hand power. The cutter leaves a long, tapered shoulder, and forms a straight tenon as you advance it like a pencil sharpener. 5⁄8-in. Veritas Tapered Tenon Cutter LeeValley.com $38 Drill for the stretcher. Loop a string around the legs at the desired stretcher location and mark the center points of the mortises. Then draw a line on the front of the legs to get the stretcher angle. Tilt the drill-press table to the angle on the face of the leg and drill the mortises. As before, I make the stretchers to fit and cut their tenons using the Veritas tapered tenon cutter. Assembly and finishing touches Now’s the time to take the legs from square and bulky to beautiful. I use a bench plane to create an octagon, and do the final shaping with a spokeshave. After that, I dry-fit the entire stool, and mark the wedge slots in the ends of all of the tenons. this is a good time to make sure the stool goes together well and it's also a good time to mark the orientation of each leg and stretcher so there is no headscratching when you have glue in the mortises. Last, I mark the leg tenons where they enter the underside of the seat to show www.finewoodworking.com Test the fit. Fit the stretcher into the front legs and try to insert the legs into the seat. You want the stretcher shoulders to be a little bit too far apart, so the leg tenons are a bit difficult to insert, but not too hard. The same rule applies when sizing the side stretchers. September/OctOber 2016 61